The OpenGeoRock project

Almost all the programs a geotechnical engineer relies on are closed and expensive, and their users cannot see how they reach their results, even though decisions about dams, slopes, tunnels and foundations depend on them. OpenGeoRock rebuilds those tools as open-source software. The computation core is written in plain Python and has a desktop interface on top; the test suite is published with the rest of the code, so anyone can inspect it.

§ 01 — Principles

The principles behind the project

Each method comes with the reference case it was validated against, so its results can be compared with a known answer. The other principles follow from that one.

Readable engines

The computation cores are pure Python, documented and independent of the interface, so they can be read like any other code and called from your own scripts or programs.

Verifiable results

Numerical results are validated against an external reference: a published case, a closed-form solution or an analytic identity. We do not use stored snapshots of the program's own output for this.

No setting that does nothing

If a control does not change the result, the user still assumes the analysis takes it into account. That is why each option has a test that checks it changes the result.

A desktop interface

The PySide6 interface has a modeller, an interpretation window for the results and a built-in Python terminal.

Open to AI agents

The operations the interface uses are also published through an MCP server, so an AI agent can work on the same model as the engineer.

Designed for contributors

The modules are small and have a clear scope. Contributors, with or without AI assistance, follow a written contract that gives the reason for each rule.

§ 02 — Team

A small team at the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena

OpenGeoRock is written by Samuel Sáez López as part of his doctoral research at UPCT, under the academic supervision of Prof. Emilio Trigueros Tornero.

Author · maintainer · copyright holder

Samuel Sáez López

Mining engineer · PhD candidate, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT)

PhD candidate in the Technology and Modelling in Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering programme at UPCT. He writes and maintains the OpenGeoRock code and leads the design of both the computation engine and the interface. His doctoral research on slope stability and rock mechanics feeds directly into the numerical methods published here.

LinkedIn samuel.saez@edu.upct.es GitHub

Academic supervisor · scientific collaborator

Emilio Trigueros Tornero

Professor · Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT)

Academic supervisor of the doctoral research at UPCT. He also collaborates in the scientific direction of the project, where he contributes his judgement in rock mechanics and research methodology.

LinkedIn UPCT profile

Authorship

To be clear about who contributes what: Samuel Sáez López is the author and copyright holder of the source code, and Emilio Trigueros Tornero contributes academic supervision and scientific collaboration. Contributions are accepted under the project's CLA.

Academic institutionUniversidad Politécnica de CartagenaDoctoral programme · research framework

Professional collaboratorIMGA S.L.P.Ingeniería Minera, Geológica y Ambiental

§ 03 — Licence

The AGPL-3.0-or-later licence in practice

The project is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3.0 or later. Each source file carries its SPDX identifier, and a test fails if one is missing.

Full licence text ↗

You may use OpenGeoRock freely, including for professional engineering work, and bill for that work without paying or publishing anything. The licence places no restrictions on running the program.
If you modify it and let others use your version remotely over a network (as a web service or SaaS), you must offer them the source code of your version. You may charge for that service, as long as its users can obtain the source.
There is no warranty of any kind. Results must be checked against independent calculations before anything is based on them, and responsibility for a design lies with the engineer who signs it.

A change of licence

Up to v0.1.42 the project was licensed under GPL-3.0. We moved it to the AGPL in v0.1.43 so that a modified version offered as a network service has to publish its source. The GPL does not require this, because serving a program over a network does not count as distributing it.

§ 04 — Contribute

Ways to contribute

Code, validation cases and bug reports are all welcome. It also helps a great deal if you use the program on an actual project and tell us what went wrong.

Most valuable

A validation case

A slope whose factor of safety you know from a publication, another program or a hand calculation. Open an issue with the Validation case template.

Open an issue↗

Code

Read CONTRIBUTING first

It sets out the conditions a change must meet and why each one is there. Each condition was added after a specific problem in the history of the project.

CONTRIBUTING.md↗

With AI agents

Same standard for everyone

Code written with AI assistance is accepted by the same standard as any other: if you cannot explain why a line is there, do not submit it.

Rules for agents↗

§ 05 — Cite

Citing OGR Slip2D

If OGR Slip2D contributes to published work, please cite it, and give the version you used so that the results can be reproduced.

For questions about the project, write to samuel.saez@edu.upct.es.

@software{ogr_suite,
  author  = {Sáez López, Samuel},
  title   = {{OGR Suite (OpenGeoRock)}: open-source geotechnical analysis
             of slope stability and groundwater flow},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://opengeorock.org},
  note    = {Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena. AGPL-3.0-or-later}
}